Cleaning the Barrel with Brass brush

When you are using brass brush to clean the barrel, do you only go one way or push all the way out and push all the way back.

what is the safest way?

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REAPER4206969

January 13, 2010, 12:34 AM

All the way in and all the way out from the breech end.

PigButtons

January 13, 2010, 01:09 AM

I've never liked using a brass brush unless the rifling in the barrel is so fouled with lead that a cotton brush with nitro won't clean it. Even the brass will lightly scratch a steel barrel and that just makes it that much harder to clean the next time. It can also leave trace amounts of brass in the barrel. If you keep the barrel clean and lightly oiled you should never 'have' to use the brass brush.

REAPER4206969

January 13, 2010, 01:11 AM

Even the brass will lightly scratch a steel barrel
No it won't.

PigButtons

January 13, 2010, 01:32 AM

If water can etch granite, brass can scratch steel. It will be microscopic but over time it will make a difference.

Steve in PA

January 13, 2010, 02:02 AM

Water, under pressure can etch granite. Brass is softer than the steel of the barrel. A bullet going down the barrel will do more "damage" than any brass brush can.

tlen

January 13, 2010, 05:35 AM

The only brushes I've found are nylon, phosphorus bronze, and stainless steel; no brass. Stainless Steel is the only one you have to take great care with.

The Lone Haranguer

January 13, 2010, 07:48 AM

I push it out until it completely emerges, then pull it back through. You can't reverse direction of the brush while it is still in the barrel, however.

moooose102

January 13, 2010, 09:47 AM

Even the brass will lightly scratch a steel barrel

have you ever looked at the inside of a barrel with an eye loupe? the inside of a barrel will look like it was made with a hammer and chisel under decent magnification. no brass brush i have ever come across could ever harm a surface that is that rough to begin with.

gwnorth

January 13, 2010, 10:24 AM

If you are worried about pushing a brass or bronze brush down the barrel, you must freak every time you shoot a copper jacketed bullet down it at 100's-1000's of feet per second!

I have a couple of .22 rifles from the 1920's and 1930's that have been cleaned with brass brushes thousands of times by now, and have had literally countless 10's of thousands rounds through them and the rifling on them stills look great.

rcmodel

January 13, 2010, 03:57 PM

n the brass will lightly scratch a steel barrel :rolleyes:

Bronze bore brushes have been used to clean rilfe barrels for well over 100 years now with no apparent harm.

If they damaged barrels I'm pretty sure it would have showed up by now.

BTW> You can spin a bronze bore brush in an electric drill inside a revolver chamber for a week and never find anything at all, except a clean shiny chamber!!!

If there was any scratching going on, it would ruin a revolver cylinder.
But it doesn't.

rc

Kangspec

January 13, 2010, 11:02 PM

iam sorry guys, i meant bronze brush. Not Brass!

PigButtons

April 13, 2010, 02:33 AM

Just thought inquiring minds might want to read up on a professional barrel maker's opinion.

No matter what the brush is, as long as it is softer than the steel used in the barrel (and it probably is, if it's a bore brush) it will not and can not damage the rifling. Simple materials science. Ever tried scratching glass with a steel blade? It won't. If the glass has some kind of coating, like a tint, it will slice that, but the glass will remain flawless. The hardness far exceeds the blade's and it won't damage it.

The Bushmaster

April 13, 2010, 10:32 AM

I have a 60+ year old Winchester .30 WCF mod 94. I have owned and hunted with it for the last 50 years. The cleaning brush and solvent used is Hoppe's #9 Benchrest copper solvent and a Phosphorus bronze brush. The bore is like a mirror with sharp rifling.

If phosphorus bronze brushes were that bad on rifle and pistol bores would they have been use all these years? I think not...

Hokkmike

April 13, 2010, 11:12 AM

I use a brush infrequently. Some bore snakes have "built in" brushes on them. A couple of passes with solvent, followed by a light wiping of CLP and you are good to go. I even like the smell of Hoppes and Break Free.

The nice thing about semi barrels is that they are short, easy to inspect, and not hard to clean.

Regular cleaning after each shooting session helps too. I always consider cleaning guns part of the fun of shooting.

Shadow 7D

April 13, 2010, 05:47 PM

millions of soldiers everywhere have been using "brass" borebrushes for a very long time

Zerodefect

April 13, 2010, 08:00 PM

I use the brush as needed. As in, not very often. Usually a weak nylon brush works fine.

I spray the barrel down with clp. Let soak, pull a wet patch through a few times, pull a dry patch through to dry it out. Then if that patch is still dry I'll add a little oil to the patch to protect the barrels insides.

It's not good to overbrush the barrel with metal brushes. Also I don't push my bush all the way out. I stop when its end gets past the muzzel. That way the rod never touches the crown.

CoRoMo

April 13, 2010, 08:15 PM

Use a BoreSnake.

Onmilo

April 14, 2010, 02:54 PM

As stated, brushes are made of bronze, not brass.
Bore Snakes contain an internall woven bronze brush.

The only negative concerning bronze brushes is when they are used in conjunction with modern solvents that remove copper fouling.
Since copper is a component of bronze, the solvents will eat the brush in fairly short order so if you use these products I would strongly recommend sticking with nylon brushes which the solvents will not affect.

I insert the all brushes from chamber or muzzle depending on which is practical and push it through the bore, then I unscrew the brush from the rod, remove the rod from the bore, reinstall the brush and repeat as many times as necessary to loosen the fouling.
This also allows you to clean the brush each time, removing any jacket material or lead chips from the brush.

Running any brush back and forth in a barrel bore only wears the brush out faster from the brush tines being rocked back and forth on the securing wire, it certainly doesn't make the bore any cleaner and by dragging potential pieces of jacket material or what not back and forth in the bore one really does run the risk of scratching the barrel steel in the bore. HTH

GLOOB

April 16, 2010, 06:06 AM

Pure water can't mark granite. It's the sand/sediment/diatoms that are carried in the water that does the dirty work.

If your brush is dirty with rock/sand/carbide particles, then it will scratch your barrel. If it's clean, it won't do any harm.

Blakenzy

April 16, 2010, 06:18 AM

Brass=60% copper, 40%zinc

Bronze=80% copper, 20% tin

When you are using brass brush to clean the barrel, do you only go one way or push all the way out and push all the way back.

I like the electric drill method.

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